LB 2325 

.H64 

Copy 



,jCa> 







^ 



PEES. HOPKINS'S ADDRESS 



BEFORE THE 



Society for tl)e |3roniotton of (HoUcgiate an^ ®l)eological 
^Irucatlon at \\)t tDfat, 

DELIVEKED IN BOSTON, MAY 26, 1852. 







rd 



AN 



ADDRESS, 



DELIVERED IN BOSTON, MAY 26, 1852, 



BEFORE THE 



0O£ietg for tl)e |3romotton of (Hollegtate an^ (irljwloigical 
/ ^^ucation at tlj£ iDest. 



/ 



BY MARK HOPKINS, D. D. 



BOSTON: 

PRESS OF T. R. MARVIN, 42 CONGRESS STREET, 
1852. 






Boston, Mat 27, 1852. 
Deak Sm, 

I am instructed by the Boston Directors of the Society for the Pro- 
motion of Collegiate and Theological Education at the West, — acting in 
behalf of the whole Board, — to present to you theh thanks for your very 
able, eloquent and acceptable Address delivered before the Society which 
they represent, at their meeting in this city yesterday, — and to request of 
you a copy for publication. 

Very respectfully and truly, 

Your friend and servant, 

S. H. WALLEY. 
Rev. M. Hopkins, D. D. 



Williams College, IVIay 29, 1852. 
Dear Sir, 

It gives me pleasure to know that the Address before the Society for 
the Promotion of Collegiate and Theological Education at the West, was 
acceptable to the Directors. If they think its publication will promote the 
good work in which they are engaged, it is at their service. 

With great respect and regard, yours, 

MARK HOPKINS. 
Hon. S. H. Walley. 



ADDRESS 



Christianity is God's method of restoring man to his 
lost manhood. This consists chiefly, indeed, in the image 
of God, for "in the image of God created he him ; " but 
there is no attribute of a true humanity which Chris- 
tianity will not quicken and ultimately make perfect. It 
is an evidence of the truth of our religion, that no man 
can become more of a Christian, without, at the same 
time, becoming more of a man. The Author and first 
Minister of this religion was a perfect man. He was 
perfect, not merely as sinless, but in his sympathy with 
all God's works, and in the perfection and balance of his 
faculties ; and what the church needs, what she is to 
labor and pray for, is a ministry as nearly as possible 
like him. 

Such a ministry it is the object of this Society to fur- 
nish. It is not a College Society, for the sake of Colleges 
as a means of general education. Not for that, important 
as it is, does it occupy the pulpit on the Sabbath. It 
would, indeed, strengthen all those affiliated influences, 
from the common school upwards, in connection with 
which the church is best sustained ; but it has to do with 
Colleges only as it can inscribe upon them, as our fathers 
did upon Harvard, " Christo et Ecclesise ; " only as they 
can be made the most efficient instruments in raising up 
such men as the church needs. 



4 

But what men the church needs, and of course the 
education they should receive, will depend on the func- 
tions they are to perform, and the relations they are to 
sustain to the people. If they are to be a hierarchy, sep- 
arated from the people by dress, by manner, by the pre- 
rogatives of a transmitted sanctity, with subordinate 
ranks, so constituted as to furnish within itself objects 
of cupidity and ambition, and, either by itself or in con- 
nection with the temporal power, seeking its own wealth 
and aggrandizement, then there will be needed, and will 
be among them, some men of high talent and the most 
finished education. These will generally do, in sub- 
stance, under the garb of religion, just what is done by 
the leaders in civil and military affairs ; but the mass will 
receive, as in the papal church, but a narrow, technical, 
monkish education, fitting them for subordinate places in 
the order. They will be educated as ecclesiastics, and not 
as men ; for the good of the order, and not of mankind. 
They will become both agents and instruments in a sys- 
tem of education, which will be at once an engine of a 
selfish ambition and of popular degradation. If such is 
to be the general type and attitude of the ministry, it 
is clear that clerical and popular education can never 
coalesce. 

But such is not the ministry which the church needs." 
She needs an order of men who will devote themselves, 
in sympathy with Christ, to the elevation and salvation 
of the race. They are to have no separate interests, as a 
class. They are to be of the people, and with them, and 
for them. Adopting no narrow sectarianism, but Chris- 
tianity, as God's method, and the only one, of elevating 
men, they must seek to apply that as teachers and leaders. 
As the method reaches that which is deepest and most 
peculiarly human in man, it may and ought to embrace, 
and subordinate to itself, every legitimate form of human 
culture. 



If ministers are to make the people in the highest 
sense men, they must themselves be such men ; and the 
education best fitted to make a minister, will be that 
which is best fitted to make such a man ; it will be that 
which will bring him most fully into sympathy with God, 
as revealed not only in his word, but in all his works, and 
also with a true humanity. He will need no culture 
which will separate him, by refinement and fastidiousness, 
from the humblest and most ignorant ; he will need one 
which will put him in sympathy with the most refined 
and intelligent. He will, in short, need, not so much an 
education that is technical and professional, as one that 
is broad and liberal, an education for man as man. 

Perhaps our Fathers did not state this in terms, but it 
was a perception of it that led them, in founding what 
they called " Schools of the Prophets," to found institu- 
tions, furnishing for all the most generous and liberal cul- 
ture which the times could afford. Surprise has been 
expressed that an institution, adapted as Harvard was, to 
all, should have been founded with primary reference to 
the education of the ministry ; and that it should have 
been called, for more than a century, the " School of the 
Prophets." But we may here find an explanation of that 
fact. It arose from a comprehension, by men who have 
been sometimes called narrow and bigoted, of the true 
position of the ministry, and of the relation of Chris- 
tianity to every thing that can exalt and ennoble man. 
The Fathers of the Puritan church said, that those who 
were to teach them, should themselves be taught ; that 
the church should have, for the education of her ministers 
primarily, but also for all her sons, institutions at once 
Christian and liberal. Such institutions she founded and 
has sustained. And what the Fathers said, we say. We 
say that the church must and will have, for her sons, 
institutions of the highest order, which she can feel to be 
Christian institutions, and to which she can give her 



sympathies and her prayers. We insist, too, that the 
union of religion with all knowledge is as essential to the 
healthy life of a free state as to that of the church ; and 
hence, that the founding and sustaining of such institu- 
tions is the duty of both. 

But what the Fathers did for New England, this Soci- 
ety would do for the West. With such modifications as 
a sound discretion would dictate, it would transplant the 
New England College to the western prairie, for the pur- 
pose of raising up there a Christian ministry. This the 
church might do from her own resources. If it were the 
only way of obtaining a suitable ministry, she ought to do 
it. But if in doing this, she will provide an indispensable 
link in that chain of educational instrumentalities, which 
are at once the strength and glory of a free people, then 
patriotism may be appealed to as well as piety, and the 
object is one in which the whole country is directly inter- 
ested. 

The question then arises, whether the New England 
College, transplanted, and perhaps modified, would be, in 
its place, the best agency that could be devised, in such a 
system of general education as a great and free people ought 
to have. This opens a field so wide that we can scarcely 
enter upon it ; but it is clear that this Society can legiti- 
mate itself most fully, and find its most triumphant vindi- 
cation, only in the establishment of this general position. 

It was said by Dr. Johnson, that education was as well 
known in his day, and had long been as well known, as it 
ever could be ; and in this country the same self-compla- 
cent opinion formerly prevailed. But now, the waters 
have come up into these channels of discussion that were 
dry ; and it is only the most solid structures that are not 
afloat. In some of the States, the whole system of Common 
Schools has been revised, and an attempt made, we hope 
a successful one, to introduce new methods of instruction, 
and to place them on higher ground. In the opinion of 
some, the whole system of Academies is wrong, and 



should be displaced by High Schools for towns ; and 
there are those who think that the College system should 
be abandoned. They regard it, if not positively injurious, 
yet as antiquated and narrow, and not furnishing the 
education demanded by the times. In this diversity of 
opinion, and especially where the foundations are to be 
laid in new States, it may be well to inquire whether 
there are any points respecting a collegiate education con- 
cerning which we may hope for a general agreement, and 
also, incidentally, where the points of divergence will arise. 

And first, I think it will be generally agreed, that the 
country needs provision for a system of liberal education. 
By a liberal education, I mean that which has for its 
object the symmetrical expansion, and the discipline of 
the human powers, — the cultivation of man as man. By 
the expansion of the powers, we give them strength ; by 
their symmetrical expansion, we give them balance ; and 
by discipline, we give the man control over them. If we 
can do these three things, we shall have such men as are 
needed, — strong men, with well-balanced powers, fully 
subject to their own control. Such an education is 
distinguished from a professional, and what some would 
call a practical one, by the fact that knowledge and power 
are gained without reference to any specific end to which 
they are to be applied. 

That provision for such an education is needed is obvi- 
ous, because it meets one of the higher wants of our 
nature. Man was not made to be wholly a slave to the 
interests of the present life. There is in him an element 
that lifts him above them, and gives him a delight in 
beauty, and in truth, as well as in goodness, for their own 
sake. The humblest individual, who cultivates a flower 
for the sake of its beauty, wears the badge of a nature not 
wholly of earth and of time. The artisan, who spends an 
hour, when his toil is done, in solving a mathematical 
problem ; the clerk, or the farmer's boy, whose mind 



8 



turns spontaneously to some department of literature or of 
science, where, without thought of fame or of gain, he 
finds delight in his own activity, as the swallow finds it 
in flying, shows a capacity and a want that can only be 
met by a liberal culture. It is the mind working in its 
own proper sphere, for the pleasure of the work. This 
tendency may be encouraged where it shows itself, may 
be quickened where it lies dormant. It often exists 
strongly, not with reference to any particular department, 
but to knowledge generally ; and we need institutions 
that shall draw out and give scope to whatever there may 
be of this ennobling element among a people. 

Moreover, man is by nature an artist ; in the fine arts, 
beauty and completeness are his sole ends, and all the arts 
are modified by a regard for these. And not only is he 
an artist, but of all beings and things he is the best fitted 
to be the subject of art. Of all beings, he is originally 
the most unformed, and the most susceptible of formative 
influences. And shall man labor for beauty and complete- 
ness upon the rigid and insensible marble, and shall he do 
nothing to realize these in the flexible and living material, 
which is capable of a beauty so much nobler and higher? 
Rightly viewed, education is the highest among the fine 
arts. 

Education, conducted on these principles, is, indeed, 
regarded by some as not practical. But what can be 
more practical than to make a true man ? I distrust that 
practicalness that would take from the man, to add to his 
possessions. I believe that this universe is so constructed, 
that he who seeks legitimately a higher end in any depart- 
ment, will so best secure those that are lower ; and facts 
show that the best practical results to society have origi- 
nated in the kind of activity of which I have spoken. 

Another end of a liberal education is to gain some gen- 
eral acquaintance with the circle of literature and the 
sciences. There is no department of literature, there is 
no single science, to which a man may not devote his life 



without exhausting it ; and it is desirable that he should 
ultimately concentrate his powers on some one department. 
But before thus selecting one, it is desirable that he should 
have a general acquaintance with all. This enables him 
to know his own tendencies ; it tends as nothing else can 
to liberalize his mind, and gives position and standing 
among literary men. In some things there must be 
thoroughness and discipline, and an acquaintance with 
them sufficient for practical purposes. With others, the 
acquaintance must be what you may call superficial, if 
you please ; but yet it will answer a most valuable pur- 
pose. The knowledge of chemistry that can be acquired 
from the course of lectures given in any of our Colleges, 
may be, and is superficial, and inadequate to the wants of 
the practical chemist ; but it is sufficient to open to the 
general student one great department of the works of 
God, to give him its principles, and enable him to bring 
them into harmony with the rest. Here is a science at 
the opposite pole of astronomy, as considering forces that 
act at imperceptible distances ; and yet the wonder and 
delight with which we trace the definite combinations of 
atoms, and the laws and forces that govern them, are 
hardly less than those which we experience when we 
trace the laws and forces that govern the heavenly bodies. 
Indeed, it may yet be found that the forces which govern 
both are the same. While, therefore, the College may 
not teach chemistry so as to make it the means of fame 
or gain, it yet does make it an open avenue to these ; and 
especially are its teachings adequate for all the purposes of 
man as an emotive and contemplative being, striving to 
bring unity into all his knowledge, and to connect the 
physical universe with its Creator. So with the mathe- 
matics, as an instrument of investigation ; so with astron- 
omy, and geology, and the various branches of natural 
history. A general view of these can be given, which 
will not only liberalize the mind, and elicit tendencies, 
2 



but which will bring into activity, and bring out in their 
full proportions, all the faculties, and thus lay the founda- 
tion for the study of any particular profession. 

It may be observed further, that while the studies of 
such a course are always appropriate, there yet seems to be 
special provision made for them in that formative period 
between mere boyhood and the time when professional 
studies and active pursuits may be best entered upon. 

But if there is to be a system of liberal education^ 
chiefly for persons in their forming period, I think it will 
be generally agreed that it should involve some religious 
instruction and training, and a general supervision of 
manners and of morals. At no period of life can these 
be more needed, than during that which generally occu- 
pies the college course ; and many parents will never con- 
sent to send their sons from them at that age, without 
something of the kind. It is true, the college system im- 
plies confidence in the character of the student ; and no 
young man should enter upon it who has not some matur- 
ity of character and strength of principle. It is true, also, 
that the means of supervision in Colleges are not as effec- 
tive as would be desirable, at times when the general 
tendency is downward, and when there is artful and 
determined vice. Still, let a young man meet the same 
instructors three times a day for recitation, and twice for 
prayer, and be obliged to give an account of himself if he 
is unprepared or absent, and let the record of his attend- 
ance be reviewed once a week by a college faculty ; and 
if they are discerning and faithful men, they will soon 
understand the tendencies of every individual, and will be 
able, by kind suggestion and by discipline, to exert an in- 
valuable influence in arresting evil, and in forming aright 
the general habits. Any thing that would tend to remove 
this feature from the system, or to diminish its eff'ect, would 
be undesirable. More, far more, if possible, ought to be done. 

So far, under this head, I should hope for a general 
agreement. I may not hope it, however, when I say, that 



11 

the course of study in a liberal education should be, as a 
whole, a prescribed one. 

Without a prescribed course that shall be substantially 
pursued by all, there can be no pursuit of any study with 
reference to symmetry of development in the faculties. 
Let studies be optional, and men will choose that to which 
they have some natural or accidental bias. He who is fond 
of mathematics, will take mathematics and pursue them. 
This I would have hiui do, ultimately ; but if he is to 
be liberally educated, the very thing he needs now, is to 
have whatever germs of taste and perceptions of beauty 
there may be in him, stimulated to some such growth as 
shall be a counterpoise and relief to his mathematical ten- 
dencies. So again, is a man imaginative, susceptible, 
poetical, capable of becoming an orator and a poet ? I 
would have him follow his bent; but while he is the last 
man that would choose mathematics, and perhaps meta- 
physics, he is the very one whose happiness and useful- 
ness would be most promoted by a judicious discipline 
in those studies. 

It is said, I know, that if a study be really beneficial, 
it will stand on its own merits ; and so far as it is so, will 
be pursued. But this proceeds on a supposition not sus- 
tained by facts. Do mankind always, do the young 
especially, make sacrifices, and deny themselves for what 
they know will be for their good ? How is this with the 
studies of children ? How with early rising ? How with 
the taking of a cold bath ? How with physical exercise ? 
How with abstinence from narcotics ? How is it with 
uncivilized and heathen nations, in their relations to civil- 
ization and Christianity ? In these, and similar cases, of 
which the present seems to be one, the best results can be 
reached only by subjection to a prescribed course. There 
is in man a tendency to choose present ease ; to defer, 
and avoid labor and difficulty; and this tendency it should 
be one object of education to counteract. By adopting a 
prescribed course, we submit to nothing compulsory or 



in 

slavish. We simply avail ourselves of the experience and 
wisdom of those who have gone before ns. 

Again, the idea to be realized here is a specific one ; 
nearly as much so, as in professional education. The 
reading and lines of thought in each profession may 
branch into infinity, no less than in a liberal education ; 
but if it would be folly not to prescribe a course in the 
one, why not in the other, especially as the students are 
younger and less able to choose for themselves ? But if 
we abandon this feature, we say that there is no specific 
idea, and the whole system must lose its unity, and 
dignity, and power. There will indeed be no system of 
liberal education, and education itself will be displaced 
from among the fine arts. Its teachers will cease to be 
professional agents, and will do work to order. 

Without a prescribed course, also, there would be no 
benefit from the collision, the comparison and the general 
discipline of a college class. In most cases, this is of 
great value. Meeting with others week after week, and 
year after year, on the basis of perfect equality, and grap- 
pling with the same difficulties, an individual can scarcely 
fail to gain a knowledge both of his absolute and relative 
strength. For this end, no better system could be devised. 
Besides, peculiarities and weak points, especially in the 
various forms of vanity and self-conceit, are generally 
modified, or disappear under this discipline. 

It may be mentioned, too, that without a prescribed 
course there would be no community of literary men, 
standing on common ground, as the graduates of our Col- 
leges now do. The whole of the present order, with all 
the strong associations connected with it, which work 
many desirable results, both social and literary, would 
have to be given up. 

But such a system, it is said, must require all to proceed 
at the same rate, an J limit them to the same acquisitions. 
By no means, unless we suppose the student to be the 
merest automaton. We would, indeed, require certain 



13 

things ; but would encourage the student to attain as 
much more as possible. We would not teach him that 
his object is to "cram" for an examination, and to pass 
an ordeal as soon as he could reach a given standard. 
We would rather give some time and scope for growth 
and breadth in a natural way ; for general reading, and 
the indulgence of individual taste. Our graduates should 
all be men ; but we would cramp nothing, and dwarf 
nothing, and would have them differ as much in their 
intellectual, as their physical stature. 

But while we would thus have a standard for a liberal 
education, it should no more be a fixed one, than that for 
professional education. What would be a liberal educa- 
tion in one age, would not be in another ; and no man 
should wish, however good it might be for the time, to 
stereotype any such system. Clearly the standard, and the 
whole system of education, can be true to its end only by 
being flexible to the advancement and wants of the age. 

May I not say, then, that we need institutions that will 
give a liberal education, including regard to manners and 
morals, and to religion ; that shall be adapted, in restraint 
and discipline, to the period between the confinement of 
the school-room and the perfect freedom of manhood ; 
and that shall have a prescribed course, based on the wis- 
dom of the past, and adapted, by good sense, to the wants 
of the present ? Such institutions I suppose our Colleges 
were intended to be ; and institutions that will do sub- 
stantially this, it seems to me, the community not only 
need, but will have. 

That the Colleges have always realized this idea, need 
not be asserted. They have, perhaps, been too numer- 
ous ; they have lacked means ; students have been poor, 
and obliged to teach ; there has been a strong tendency to 
rush into active life, and at the same time a desire to have 
the name of having completed a liberal course of study. 
There has, too, been a popular cry against Colleges as too 
rigid and exclusive ; some of them have pursued a mis- 



14 

taken policy, and it has been difficult to keep the standard 
where it should be. 

Nor do I suppose that any of the Colleges either have 
pursued, or do now pursue, the very best methods of real- 
izing this idea. To do this, the studies selected should be 
those best adapted at once to immediate and practical 
utility, and to the discipline of the mind ; they should be 
arranged in a course, the preceding parts of which should 
prepare the way for those that follow ; and they should be 
pursued in such proportions, at such times and in such a 
manner, as is best suited to those laws of thought on 
which all philosophical education must be based; as will 
best facilitate acquisition, and give knowledge that shall 
be at once permanent and readily at command. 

Into such a course, to refer very briefly to this much 
agitated question, I have no doubt the ancient classics 
should enter. By the study of these we gain, indirectly, 
much knowledge of ancient history and of man ; we be- 
come conversant with the finest models ; rendering care- 
fully and elegantly from one language into another we 
adopt the best method of attaining a copious and exact 
vocabulary as an instrument not only of communication 
but of thought ; we gain some insight into the philosophy 
of language ; and from the intimate connection of the 
Latin and Greek with the composition and structure of 
our own language, especially in professional and technical 
terms, we gain a knowledge of that which could be ac- 
quired in no other way. 

We admit fully that there are men of great distinction 
and usefulness who have not studied the classics ; but we 
say there are some things they cannot do as well as they 
otherwise might, and some which they cannot do at all. 
Webster, and Everett, and Choate, would doubtless have 
been distinguished men without classical study ; but they 
could never have done what they have done. There is 
an element in their speeches and writings which every 
scholar sees could not have been there without this. 



15 

which is felt by the whole public, which gives them now 
a higher place as English classics, and will give them a 
firmer hold on posterity. These men have not only 
studied the classics, but, occupied as they have otherwise 
been, it is understood that they have lived in communion 
with them. After a speech by Mr. Choate, strong, indeed, 
in thought and in logic, but for its beauty and power of 
language the most extraordinary I ever heard — certainly, 
I think, no man living could equal it — he said, in conver- 
sation, that he found some time every day for the reading 
of Greek. 

With this view of the classics we would retain them ; 
but it would be a great point gained, if, as is now the 
tendency, the preparation in them could be more thorough. 

In minor matters there is a good deal of diversity in 
the course pursued by the different Colleges, and doubt- 
less room for improvement in them all. If I might ven- 
ture to state my own impressions, I should say that the 
physical system has not been sufficiently cared for. In 
many cases, where health has not actually failed, the vital 
energies and general tone of the system have been de- 
pressed. I should say, too, that habits of observation, or, 
in other words, the senses, have not been sufficiently cul- 
tivated. I would make drawing a part of the course, 
and, if possible, music, and have an early study of some 
science requiring observation and description, furnishing 
series of natural objects for this purpose. Perhaps, too, 
sufficient attention has not been paid to method in the 
arrangement and distribution of the studies. 

With these remarks on a liberal education, we now pass 
to a second general proposition, to which, I think, most 
will assent, which is, that the means of such an education 
should, as nearly as possible, be made accessible to all. 

This is a second great idea which those, who have 
founded and sustained our Colleges, have endeavored from 
the first to realize. They have struggled on in the en- 



16 

deavor to attain these two ends, which, with inadequate 
means, must always conflict. They have wished to fur- 
nish every facility, from books, and apparatus, and teach- 
ers to give the best possible education, and yet make it 
so little expensive as to be accessible to all. This is the 
true idea of a College in this country ; and surely nothing 
can be more in accordance with our common school sys- 
tem, and with the whole spirit of our institutions. 

The people ought to have, they must have, accessible 
to all — I would gladly see them as free as our common 
schools — institutions furnished with every facility for the 
very highest education ; so good that no man, whatever 
may be his wealth or station, can send his son else- 
where, except to his own disadvantage. The feeling that 
this is so, should be a great and pervading element in our 
social and civil state. For this it is that the State has 
bestowed its bounty. For this, public spirited and far- 
seeing individuals in former times and our own, the Har- 
vards, the Williamses, the Browns, the Lawrences, and 
the Willistons, have labored and made sacrifices. It is 
not a mere equality of right that will keep society in a 
state of stable equilibrium ; there must also be a strong 
tendency to equality of condition and of social position. 
But knowledge and wealth are the two great means by 
which men gain standing and influence ; and where the 
means of attaining these are guarded from practical mo- 
nopoly, there the institutions will be essentially equal and 
free. There you will have all the equality that is com- 
patible with a healthy stimulus and just reward of indi- 
vidual enterprise. In the old world, the spirit of mo- 
nopoly has generally reigned, both in respect to wealth 
and knowledge. In some instances they have, indeed, 
thrown open the road to the highest knowledge more 
freely even than we have yet done ; but this has been so 
done by the government, that they have held the patron- 
age and direction of talent, and, under the form of popu- 
lar education, have endeavored to bias, indirectly, the 



17 



finest minds in favor of monarchical institutions. But 
in this country, whatever may be said of wealth, there 
should be no monopoly of knowledge. Its fountains 
should be practically and equally open to all. This will 
draw out the latent talent and genius, the intellectual 
pith and manhood of the whole country, and bring them 
into free competition. It will bring, side by side, the son 
of the poor widow and of the millionaire. Side by side 
it will bring the hard-handed, sun-browned, coarsely clad 
youth, who, with the exception of some help from home 
in clothing, expects to work his own way ; who furnislies 
his room with two chairs and a table, and goes to work ; 
who does not so far approximate a carpet on his floor,- or a 
picture on his wall, as even to desire them ; and the youth 
delicately brought up, whose mother comes on with him, 
and sees to the fitting up of his room, and indulges him 
in some things which she herself thinks rather extrava- 
gant, because other young men have them, and she has 
always observed that her son studies best when he has 
things pleasant about him. Now, a young man will pre- 
sent himself elaborately fitted, well informed and gentle- 
manly in all respects ; and now, one who has started up, 
perhaps, from some nook in the mountains denominated 
Green, who has acquired, in an incredibly short time, the 
Latin, and Greek, and mathematics, necessary to enter 
College, but who knows nothing of literature, or history, 
or the world. He does not know that such a man as 
Addison, or Johnson, or Walter Scott, ever lived. Going 
to the president's study for the first time, he sits with his 
hat on, evidently as innocent of any conception of man- 
ners, as of the tricks that await him from those far inferior 
to him in true worth and in promise, who may laugh at 
him now, but who, before three years are past, will be 
very likely to "laugh on the other side." 

A system like this, really felt by the whole people to 
belong to them, must be among those things which will 
3 



18 

make every man proud of his country, and make it dear to 
him. It must tend powerfully to preserve and foster a 
genuine spirit of equality and independence. It is capable 
of abuse ; but they must know very little of its real spirit 
and bearings, who can call it aristocratic. It would be 
impossible to devise a system more entirely the reverse. 

The next proposition I would make, is one to which 
many would gladly assent, if they do not. It is, that 
such a system would not require a very large expenditure 
of money. I say this because there is, in some quarters, 
a contrary impression ; and because, if true, it is impor- 
tant to this enterprise, and to the whole system, that it 
should be so understood. 

In a single, well-devised, thorough, undergraduate 
course, very large libraries, a great amount of apparatus, 
and a large body of instructors, can be of no essential 
service. This follows from the position of the yoimg 
men when they enter, and from what it is possible they 
should do in four years. A specific work is to be done ; 
and it is reasonable to suppose that it would be better 
done by a few, well-qualified, thorough, working men, 
than by a large number. The excellence of a course will 
not depend on the amount of science there is in connec- 
tion with an institution ; but on the faithfulness and skill 
with which the instructors bring their minds into contact 
with the mind of the pupil, and lead him along those 
paths of thought and investigation where their own minds 
have been. It is the characteristic of an instructor, that 
he causes the mind of the pupil to go where his mind 
goes. He is not to tell the pupil about things, as he 
might tell about a fine prospect ; and attempt to make 
him see it through his eyes ; he must go himself, and 
stand where the prospect is, must see that the pupil follows 
him step by step, and cause him to stand where he 
stands, and to see with his own eyes. But to do this re- 
quires time, and acquaintance with individuals, — on some 



19 

subjects, it requires a great expenditure of thought and 
emotion; and if the instruction be greatly divided, very 
little of this will be possible. Responsibility will be 
divided, and the danger will be, that there will be in the 
course but little depth and power. A few such men, every 
institution should be able to command and to retain. It 
should pay them well. Obtain the right men, and let 
their hearts be in the work, and the great difficulty is 
surmounted. But to do this, surely need not require a 
very great expenditure. Williams College has now stood 
nearly sixty years. From the question of its removal, 
and from fire, it has passed through periods of great diffi- 
culty. It is not for me to say what it has done ; but it 
has lived, and has educated nearly fifteen hundred men, 
and is now educating more than two hundred. But it 
never has had, it has not now, I do not know that it ever 
will have, charity funds and all, a productive capital of 
fifty thousand dollars. This ought not so to be. These 
brethren are quite right in seeking to lay broader founda- 
tions for the great West, and I desire to aid them in doing 
so. For its stability and greatest efficiency, such an insti- 
tution should have from seventy-five to a hundred thou- 
sand dollars. The latter sum would be the limit of my 
wishes, unless classes are to be divided ; and for double 
that we could educate gratuitously, if not all who would 
come, yet more than our present number. This shows 
that if the Western States, or any other States, choose to 
put their college system on the same footing with their 
common schools, they can do it. 

But the question now arises, whether this system would 
supply all the educational wants of the country. To this, 
I have no hesitation in saying. No. The time I think 
has come, when we need an institution, one or more, of 
a different order. We need a University. Of this, the 
nucleus and basis should be professional education, mean- 
ing by this not merely that for the three professions tech- 



m 

nically so called, but education in any branch of literature 
or science, or art, which would fit an individual for a 
specific line of life. 

Here men from the different Colleges, and others 
desiring to be fitted for practical life, should meet, and 
stand chiefly on their own responsibility, and be free to 
learn, and, as far as practicable, to teach whatever they 
might choose. Here should be a library of a million or 
a million and a half of volumes, and cabinets, and collec- 
tions in the arts, and facilities for prosecuting, to any extent, 
any branch of knowledge. Here the scientific farmer, 
the mechanic, the miner, the engineer, the chemist, the 
artist, the literary man, should find ample means of 
instruction. As far as possible, they should have access 
to all that the experience and genius of the world has yet 
contributed in their several departments. 

Of the causes and indications of such a want, I need 
not now speak. They are to be found in the immense 
expansion of the industrial and commercial interests in 
connection with the application of science to the arts; in 
the quickening and extension of thought and activity in 
all directions ; and in the general advancement of society 
and demand for a higher culture. For a long time this 
want has been felt, and has been increasing ; and the 
attempts by some of our Colleges to supply it have been 
praiseworthy. 

How this want may be best met, is a broad question, 
which we cannot now discuss. Clearly it cannot be done 
by each separate College ; and so far as I can form an 
opinion, any attempt to blend the two courses into one, 
will but produce an expensive, complex, incongruous and 
inadequate system. 

The question will then arise, whether such an institu- 
tion, really distinct, should stand wholly by itself, or be 
engrafted on some one of our Colleges. If it should be 
thus engrafted, the object would be, not the benefit of 
the college course, — for no one supposes that the profes- 



21 

sional schools connected with some of our Colleges can 
be of any advantage to that, — but that the University 
might avail itself of the means already in possession of 
the College. How far this consideration should weigh 
at the East, it would be difficult to say ; but if a new sys- 
tem were to be formed, it would be my decided impres- 
sion that it would be better if they were wholly separated. 
The whole object, and scope, and economy of a colle- 
giate and of a professional course, must be entirely 
different; and there cannot but be practical evils, where 
young men, having such different objects, and under such 
different regulations, are associated. 

Nor would the establishment of such a University re- 
quire too great an expenditure. No buildings would be 
needed, except for a library and cabinets, and lecture 
rooms ; and from the greater numbers, the lectures would 
pay for themselves, or at least would require less endow- 
ment than if scattered in separate schools. There are 
men in this country who could found such an institution, 
and put it well on its way, and have an ample fortune 
left. This would give us an educational system efficient 
and complete ; there are movements toward it in various 
quarters, and such an one I trust we may yet have. 

I have thus indicated some things which I should 
regard as essential to a complete educational system. 
This has been done very briefly and imperfectly ; but I 
hope sufficiently to show, what was said must be shown 
in order to legitimate this Society most fully — that is, 
that the Institutions which it would establish at the West, 
will be an essential link in such an educational system as 
a great and free people ought to have. Its specific object, 
indeed, is to provide ministers for the churches ; but we 
contend that the general education which they need is 
precisely that which is fitted for man as man — that which 
any judicious parent would wish to give his son, to fit 
him for usefulness and distinction in the world. 



There is here, there can be but one great point of differ- 
ence, and that is the extent to which rehgious instruction 
and influence shall enter into these Seminaries. This is a 
point on which this Society can have no hesitation and no 
compromise. Man has a moral and religious nature, by 
which it was intended his other qualities should be con- 
trolled. To this, the intellect and all its acquisitions should 
be subservient ; upon the right direction of this, will 
depend his individual well-being here and hereafter, and 
the well-being of society; and it is absurd to think of 
educating him as a man, and neglect this. No man, 
especially no Christian man, has a right to send his son 
to an institution where provision is not made and care 
taken for this. In this, the period of college life is often 
a critical one, often a turning point. What a man is when 
he leaves College, he generally continues to be. 

What we need, then, and must have, are institutions on 
the broad basis of Christianity, with a course of study 
thoroughly liberal, — institutions of which no one can com- 
plain for sectarianism ; and yet having connected with 
them such religious instruction and influence as should 
satisfy Christian people, as will tend to foster piety, and 
lead men to God. These are the two great features, and 
the only ones on which we insist. Retain these fully, 
and we are willing our institutions should be modified, 
should be Westernized, if you please, to any extent. 

That there may be such institutions, is shown by our 
New England and other Colleges, Who complains of 
Yale College, or of Princeton, as sectarian? If there can 
be any ground of complaint, it must be only from the 
connection with them of Theological Seminaries. Expe- 
rience shows that Colleges may be so conducted as to be 
highly favorable to growth in piety, and to revivals of 
religion. There are no communities where revivals have 
been more frequent, or more powerful, or more free from 
questionable elements, or more happy in their results. 
From the first, the Colleges generally have sympathized 



23 

fully with the religious community in this ; and more 
especially since the annual observance by the churches of 
a day of fasting and prayer on their behalf. 

Modern times do not furnish, scarcely can ancient times 
furnish more signal instances of answer to prayer. It has 
been wonderful to see the great mass of such a commu- 
nity swayed by an invisible influence, as the trees of the 
wood are swayed, — an influence gradually awing down 
all opposition, and producing in every mind the solemn 
conviction that it was from God. It has been sublime to 
see young men, in the face of such a community, in the 
perfect stillness of the crowded meeting, rise and in few 
and simple words state their convictions of sin, their hope 
in the mercy of God, and their determination to serve him 
in future. Such scenes we have witnessed the past year, 
and also the present. They have been witnessed in many 
other Colleges ; and this Society would establish institu- 
tions where they may be witnessed without a miracle. 

And such institutions are needed not merely for the 
sake of religion, but of education itself and of the state. 
God made the intellect and the moral nature to work in 
harmony, to act and react on each other. He never in- 
tended the intellect should reach its perfection, except 
under the control of the moral faculty ; it never will ; 
and to seek to make it, is like seeking to roll up the stone 
of Sisiphus. It is time this principle was fully recog- 
nized, especially in our western States, where it is sad to 
see such immense educational resources in danger of per- 
version and loss. Nothing can be more beautiful than the 
theory of a College as an institution where every facility 
is provided, and young men have nothing to do but to 
come in the freshness, and strength, and ingenuousness of 
their youth, and devote themselves to self-improvement. 
A more gratifying sight could hardly be presented, than 
that of two hundred or more young men, devoting them- 
selves faithfully to self-improvement, in the enjoyment of 
such advantages. But he must know little of human 



24 

nature, who does not perceive that there must be con- 
nected with such institutions tendencies and influences 
that are strong to evil, and which, unresisted and uncon- 
trolled, would render them a curse rather than a blessuig. 
There is danger that they will become the abodes of 
indolence and vice, danger of physical, and social, and 
moral deterioration. If any one supposes that there will 
be generally, among such a body, faithful devotion to 
study, and moral purity, without the restraints of religion, 
and, I may say, the presence of the Spirit of God, he has 
only to look below the surface to be fully undeceived. 
No ; if there ever was an institution that needed the 
prayers of God's people and every good and holy influ- 
ence, that institution is a College. States may endow 
Colleges as they will ; but constituting them so as virtu- 
ally to exclude these influences, there will be heard a 
voice, and there ought to be, saying, "Come out of them, 
my people." And they will come out and endow insti- 
tutions for themselves, and such institutions will be pre- 
ferred by the great mass of those who have sons to edu- 
cate. If political bodies, in those States where there are 
large educational funds, cannot secure and perpetuate 
such influences, it would be better that they should let 
collegiate education alone, except as they might aid per- 
manent boards of trust established for the purpose, and 
that they should give their strength to the upbuilding of 
a University on the plan above mentioned. 

In the mean time this Society has a work to do. Let 
it do it well; let it strengthen the bonds of kindness ; 
let it add to the ties of blood the assimilative influence of 
kindred literary institutions ; let it select wisely the points 
where the fortresses shall be cast up, on what may be the 
moral battle-field of the world ; let it furnish clear light 
for the guidance of the unequalled strength that is there 
growing up ; let it provide such a ministry for the church 
as she will need in the day that is coming. 



I» • 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



019 737 128 6 



